Ever since we stumbled on a Pinterest page devoted totally to DOORS, we’ve been mulling possibilities and wondering why we don’t see more imaginative doors around New York City; most are from Europe where age and eccentricity are the norm. That is, until we spotted the wondrous trompe l’oeil door in Brooklyn (above) and this garage door in Queens scrawled with a powerful quote from Sylvia Plath: (more…)

At Brain Pickings today, we stumbled on this wonderful illustration from Oliver Jeffers’ charming kid’s book, Once Upon an Alphabet. It’s a sign we’d like to print out and hang on our wall, a quiet, potent reminder.

ONWARD! is the word we find helps most in times of fear, anxiety or overwhelm — a new project or an exhausting one, an idea we’re trying out, NOT knowing where we’re going. (more…)

Artist Jenny Holzer‘s sign is a wondrously-expansive view of living Valentine’s Day…daily.

We’d love to have this bench in our Laboratory…a fine reminder… (more…)

]]>http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/02/13/valentine-jenny-holzer/feed/0HOW You See Is What You Gethttp://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/02/05/see-get/
http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/02/05/see-get/#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 08:46:11 +0000http://www.improvisedlife.com/?p=48042

At But Does it Float, we were struck by this the title of a photography exhibition (not by the photographs). “How you see is what you get” is one of Improvised Life’s essential principles. NOT in the magical thinking way, that we will get everything we want if we just think a certain way.

But in the sense that being aware of the lens through which we are seeing can powerfully determine our experience. And that awareness is a practice; (more…)

]]>http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/02/05/see-get/feed/0A Random Message Written in the Snow: What Would Be Yours?http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/01/28/twilight-random-message-written-snow/
http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/01/28/twilight-random-message-written-snow/#commentsThu, 29 Jan 2015 03:07:40 +0000http://www.improvisedlife.com/?p=47932

Sally Schneider

At twilight yesterday, we went into the park across the way to walk in a snowy field. The light was almost gone, the landscrape a blueish white. As we walked and looked around, our eyes focused on a message written in the snow. We could barely make it out, but found safe amonst the boot prints, a question:

This is the first year in some time that Martin Luther King Jr. day was a disturbing day, rather than a purely hopeful one. In light of the recent events in Ferguson and elsewhere, the message in the air, sadly, has been that Dr. King’s dream was not as far along as we thought. It seems as though it might be in dire straits.

Then we saw two images that showed us the light that resonates still in King’s work. (more…)

Psychotherapist Chris Eldredge sent us this powerful TED talk of neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson‘s simple technique for transforming our hardwired negative patterning (also known as Negativity Bias). We thought 13+ minutes might be too long for our busy selves, but Hanson’s talk flies by, and we found ourselves with a useful practice we can do anywhere, anytime.

The gist: People more readily TAKE IN negative things that happen to them; incorporating the positive takes a simple 20-second technique. Although the back story is illuminating, you can cut to the chase at 7:12. (Video link HERE.) (more…)

On the this best year-end/New Year’s reflections is, as always, the New York Times’ Magazine’s The Lives They Lived, brief stories of incredibly original lives of famous and unknown that passed away in 2014. If you don’t have subscription access to the Times, use your free monthly read (whatever it is) to go here and scroll down the bargain page of 30 extraordinary —often inspiring — lives.

For us one of the most startling: artist On Kawara —whose Date Paintings we have featured —, the very private and elusive conceptual artist who, over the course of three decades, sent out over 900 telegrams with the message:

Stomping around the park yesterday after a rain we looked DOWN and saw this unexpected message on the wet sidewalk: a potent bit of wisdom and fine reminder.

TAKE ACTION

INSPIRE CHANGE

Random?

]]>http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/01/05/discover-random-wisdom-everywhere-just-look-around/feed/0A Poem for Starting A New Year or Day or Hourhttp://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/01/05/a-poem-for-starting-a-new-year-or-day-or-hour/
http://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/01/05/a-poem-for-starting-a-new-year-or-day-or-hour/#commentsMon, 05 Jan 2015 07:31:43 +0000http://www.improvisedlife.com/?p=47478

One of the best gifts we received for Christmas was Mary Oliver’s book of poems Blue Horses. No matter where we open it, we find a few words that reminds us of a way of living and seeing we’d like to follow. (The epigraph features the remarkable Kabir quote, above.)

Here’s a catalyzing fragment from the poem “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac”: (more…)

(Video link HERE!) The lovely GIF we saw at Hedwiggen, below, suddenly made us flash on John Lennon singing Imagine in 1971, over forty years ago. The video he made with Yoko Ono, with its image of the opening up of the dark, shuttered rooms of a house to light, resonates still. We think of all that happened to them both: the terrible tragedy from which Ono kept emerging with her art works and expressions of peace, and daring SCREAMS. Over decades, she has continued to turn dark to light (embracing aging and even being a bad dancer).

So, though when we first read Imagine’s lyrics, we thought it as super-idealistic and pie-in-the-sky-ish, we realize that it’s not. (more…)